Baby bonding

Liz Phair is ambivalent about adoption.

The singer, who was adopted herself, worries about the well-being of the babies that her friends are adopting.

"I don't think you can be adopted without being a little bit screwed up, just knowing what I know from having [her son] Nick," Phair told the June issue of Women's Health magazine that comes out next week. "I have a lot of friends who are adopting right now. These babies are going to be just 8 months old, leaving their mothers who can't take care of them. By 8 months, Nick and I were so bonded it was ridiculous. How is that going to work? My friends say, 'It's going to be wonderful.' I'm biting my nails, thinking, 'Do you know what you’re getting into?'"

VH1, Sundance high on Drug Years documentary

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - VH1 and Sundance Channel have teamed to produce an original documentary series titled The Drug Years, a four-part look at the rise of illicit drug use and its cultural impact in the second half of the 20th century.

Among those who will be featured in interviews are Liz Phair, Peter Coyote, Jackson Browne, Ray Manzarek from The Doors, Ice-T, Rob Thomas, Tommy Chong, Russell Simmons, John Mellencamp and Henry Rollins.

The series debuts at 9 p.m. June 12 on VH1 and encores on Sundance Channel starting at 8 p.m. June 16.

Martin Torgoff is the writer/consulting producer on the series, which is based on his book Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age.

You can get more details on the documentary series at Elites TV.

On May 9th, 2006, Artist's Addiction Records will release the third soundtrack tie-in to the popular WB show Charmed.

Entitled Charmed: The Final Chapter, the soundtrack will feature tracks culled from songs that have been used in episodes throughout the show's eight seasons. Among the marquee artists included on the soundtrack are Sarah McLachlan, Collective Soul, Liz Phair, and Crystal Method.

The Liz song chosen for inclusion on this soundtrack is "Baby Got Going".

Liz Phair struts her stuff

by Steve Baltin

Liz Phair, supermodel? The singer-songwriter made her catwalk debut in Los Angeles recently as part of a GM pre-Academy Awards showcase for cars, fashion and music. If it sounds surreal for the architect of Exile in Guyville to be strolling down the runway alongside Lindsay Lohan, Mischa Barton, Eva Longoria and Carmen Electra, Phair thought the same thing at first. "I was kind of shocked," she says of the invitation to participate. "'You want me to do what, and no guitar?'" She was impressed with some of her runway-mates, though. "Jeremy Piven not only stole the show -- he stole it and, like, re-licensed it to another country."

As a promotional tie-in, Ralph Lauren, promoting its newest fragrance Ralph Hot, will be conducting an interview with Liz. More details at the Ralph Hot website.

...I had an incredible time at the Global Green Pre-Oscar party. We basically shut the party down, being some of the last souls to leave at 2am. The venue was twice as big since they had twice as many folks there. It was held in a theater and the VIP Room was upstairs across from the balcony. We didn't attempt to talk our way in this time. Instead we were content to be in front of the stage watching the great acts they had perform. Liz Phair did a very cool acoustic set. I'd never hear Money Mark's stuff before and I really liked him. Fishbone was the headliner but because of unfortunate timing they didn't go on till after 11:00. The majority of folks had left by then...

On Friday, March 3rd, the environmental group Global Green's fund-raiser is at the Henry Fonda Theater, with performances by Liz Phair, Fishbone, Tracy Lyons, and Money Mark.

If you happen to be in L.A. and want to attend the Global Green's Annual Oscar Party, you can get tickets from Global Green.

Liz and a number of celebrities stormed the GM ten runway Tuesday night (February 28th) at General Motors annual Hollywood fashion/car show regularly kicks off the Oscar week's festivities. The other celebrities included Lindsay Lohan; Mischa Barton; Joy Bryant; Eva Longoria; Garcelle Beauvais; Brooke Burke; Erin Daniels and Katherine Moennig; Heisman trophy winning USC Trojan running back Reggie Bush; tennis babe Anna Kournikova; Friday Night Lights star Derek Luke; Carmen Electra; and Sarah Chalke of Scrubs.

For those who are interested, Liz was wearing Giorgio Armani.

"I turned off the TV for this book. It rocked" -- Liz Phair

The book is set in Winnetka, Illinois (go figure)... You can see the book's cover here.

LIZ PHAIR

Singer-songwriter

"You Make Me Feel Brand New" by the Stylistics. "Just a beautiful simple song, with a simple message."

Anyway, at Harry O's, she played an acoustic set comprising new and old songs. She even played my favorite, "Divorce Song", as well as "Fuck and Run" -- though only after Matt (ahem) politely requested it by bellowing "Fuck and Run! Fuck and RUN! FUCK AND RUN!" with increasing volume, prompting several annoyed and/or bemused head-turns. These two songs, both on Guyville, were intriguing and relevant because they rejected the syrupy breakup songs littering Top-40 Radio. Though I wouldn’t call Phair a great lyricist, she once had an edge and seemed unafraid to use it.

Her more recent efforts, though, clearly renounce that earlier edge, which finally became obvious to me at this show, making me wonder: what the fuck happened?

Basically, Phair played one disappointing song after another (with a few earlier standards sprinkled in), but the real symbolic moment for me occurred when one of her recent videos appeared on the five or six large-screen TVs positioned around the venue. I had seen the video before, a slick production depicting Phair and her band performing in an abandoned warehouse (i.e., indoors) while, somehow, being drenched with rain. It's the kind of atmosphere that would seem gritty and industrial and tough, except the rain seems like just a means of getting Phair's shirt wet. She even called attention to the video during her set, half-embarrassed by it, and for good reason, since the song's chorus sounds like the bad poetry of a 13-year-old girl...

You can read the rest of the report / review here.

PLENTY Magazine and Global Green USA Team Up To Create First Ever Got Plenty? Campaign to Benefit the Environment

NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Lili Taylor,Maggie Gyllenhaal, Liz Phair, Vanessa Carlton, Stephan Jenkins, Adrian Grenier, Jack Osbourne, Sally Kirkland, Terrence Howard, Rufus Wainwright and Hill Harper are just some of the celebrities who have joined PLENTY, the leading environmental lifestyle magazine and Global Green USA, a national environmental group founded by President Gorbachev, to bring a little extra social consciousness to this year's Sundance Film Festival by collecting donations of celebrity swag items to help raise funds toward building a sustainable future.

Pit stop at the Queer Lounge to hang with some friends, then over to the filmmaker lounge to chill on the cushy couches with a glass of cabernet, then a walk down Main Street to the Stella lounge for a couple beers and free beer glasses. This year the swag has been decent for non-celebrity types like myself. Plenty of t-shirts, a couple sets of earphones, and the cool beer glasses to name a few. After a brief interlude back at the condo, I shuttled back to Main Street to the Barclay Butera party where I stood front row center watching Liz Phair sing to a full house. Someone told me today that Sting was standing right next to me the entire time. He must have been the guy I kept doing double-takes on and couldn't figure out who he was, despite the fact that I had sat through 2 hours of Police home movies earlier in the day. I'm getting delerious without sleep, without healthy food and with so much Absolut running through my body. Even though I didn't recognize Sting, the party was full of other celebrities. I spotted Michael Rappaport on the red carpet, spied a wasted Nick Nolte slouched over on one of the couches in the VIP area and Timothy Hutton was engrossed in conversation with a fan. Anne Heche signed a piece of memorabilia that will be auctioned off for the Queer Lounge and inscribed, "Stay Queer!" To which I promptly asked, "because she can't???" But the winning gossip of the night was when Rebecca, Queer Lounge diva extraordinare, explained how she spent an hour driving around Deer Valley at 4am because he was too drunk to remember where his condo was. Another Cosmo, anyone?

Shortly before Liz Phair was to go on stage at Harry O's, we all headed over. It was a fun acoustic set, but way too short. She asked us to throw requests out to her, since she wasn't working from a set list, but she didn't play mine, which was "HWC". She said, "You really want to hear that?" or "You really want me to play that?" I said, "Hell, yeah!" But she said maybe she should take a poll, and never did. She played 2 or 3 more songs after that, and called it a night. Still very cool, regardless of all that, and she did play a song or two from nearly all her albums.

Liz Phair and smoking celebs

Liz Phair delivered a rousing short set of songs Sunday night at the Q Television Network Party in the Queer Lounge. The lounge's third festival event drew a host of familiar faces including Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Jonathon Tchaikovsky and Trevor Morgan from the Sundance Film Off the Black. The party also honored the films, Open Window, Factotum, Steel City, Allegro, Flannel Pajamas, The Proposition, and Special.

DOWNLOAD THIS By Ryan Dombal

LIZ PHAIR, "NEVER SAID (LIVE)"
Those bummed by the onetime indie darling's halfhearted excursions into generic pop-rock can take solace in a new acoustic take on Exile in Guyville classic "Never Said", exclusively online (at iTunes).

WE SAW U AT SUNDANCE: Liz Phair, Daryl Hannah, James Van Der Beek, Terrence Howard, Tommy Lee and Shannon Elizabeth at the Equal cocktail/beverage bar at the Volkswagen Main Street Lounge.

Note worthy
Sundance parties tune up
By Sharon Swart

Liz Phair and Dave Matthews showed up at the UTA/Amazon fete Sunday (January 22nd) to catch Hasidic hip-hop/reggae sensation Matisyahu play.

From Spin and Stir:

UTA/AMAZON @ THE SHOP (two thumbs up)

WHO WENT: Liz Phair, Dave Matthews, Agents, Publicists, Young, young young people.

WHY WE LOVED IT: Amazing performance by the Hasidic hip-hop and reggae star, Matisyahu. He rocked the house. He is like an orthodox Jew who can rap and rock without a band behind him. It was amazing. He even had his yamakeh on the whole time. Lots of alcohol flowing freely. Fun atmosphere. Everyone was in good mood. Happy times. Good spirits and Sundance Vibe.

SWAG: None

The Reeler's Sundance Sunday: Brunch, Films and Phair

In the end, The Reeler penetrated the handstamp armada, where folks like Nick Cave, Tim Hutton, Murderball co-director Dana Adam Shapiro and -- for a mintue or so -- Nick Nolte braved the crowd gathered to hear headliner Liz Phair crank out some ditties with her shaggy underage boyfriend harmonic acoustic accompanist. I knew none of the songs, but the drunkest people in the room pretended to, so we inherited Phair's rock show sing-along vibe mostly intact. After Phair's set, however, the cool people wound up in an even more congested VIP are across the corridor, leaving my colleague Ray Pride and I stranded in the quickly restored Queer Lounge. The lipstick lesbians stopped kissing soon enough, however, and the next bus out of Main Street was our bus home.

Sundance on Ice: 22 January

Liz Phair, playing a selection of her filthier work at the Los Angeles Times' The Envelope. Too many people were singing aong with "HWC".

This appears to be the Barclay Butera & Hollywood Life Salute Must-see Dramas event mentioned earlier (see 01-21-06 post).

• Sunday, January 22nd Park City, UT - Barclay Butera & Hollywood Life Salute Must-see Dramas at The Queer Lounge (invitation only)
• Friday, January 27th Park City, UT - Cargo Magazine Live on Location at Harry O's (invitation only)

Other shows can be found here. Oh, and if you were curious, yes, Dino Meneghin will be accompanying Liz.

1. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (Vice)
2. Kanye West – Late Registration (Roc-a-Fella)
3. Bright Eyes – I'm Wide Awake, It’s Morning (Saddle Creek)
4. Missy Higgins – The Sound of White (Reprise)
5. Dave Matthews – Stand Up (RCA)
6. My Morning Jacket – Z (ATO)
7. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans (Atlantic)
8. Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine (Epic)
9. Gorillaz – Demon Days (Virgin)
10. Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams (Universal)

From Blender ("The 50 Greatest CDs of 2005"):

50. LIZ PHAIR SOMEBODY'S MIRACLE CAPITOL
The ex-indie queen goes all Wisteria Lane, singing about doomed affairs and being desperate for love.

From St. Paul Pioneer Press:

6. Liz Phair, Somebody's Miracle (Capitol)
To much teeth gnashing from her fans, Liz Phair retired her filthy-mouthed, sexed-up persona for this mature collection of glossily produced songs that attempted to establish her as a hipper version of Sheryl Crow. Both the mainstream and underground rejected it, but the few who actually listened found a likeable and very human sequel to her similarly underrated 1998 album whitechocolatespaceegg.
Ross Raihala, St. Paul Pioneer Press

From Bullz-Eye.com:

8. Liz Phair: Somebody's Miracle (Capitol)
Liz continues her pop queen career with this follow-up to Liz Phair. In my opinion, it's a much better album (though I did enjoy the former as well). I'm just sick of her oldest fans – and I might as well count myself as one – who do nothing but bitch about her old indie glory days and want her to keep making Exile In Guyville. Stop whining already. She herself has said that's never going to happen, so take it or leave it. I'll gladly take it, as I always preferred Whip-Smart to Guyville, anyway. But Somebody's Miracle has many a fine moment, so kudos to Liz for doing what she wants.
Jason Thompson

From The Memphis Flyer:

Honorable Mention:
Somebody's Miracle -- Liz Phair (ColumbiaCapitol)
Werner Trieschmann
[Note: This person's list was a Top Five; the honorable mention had mentioned five more albums. Had the list been a Top Ten, Liz's album would have been No. 8.]